30 December 2007

By way of celebration.....

To end our Unit of Inquiry on Pattern Rhyme and Rhythm, we invited parents in for a Celebration of Learning. As well as sharing some songs, some choral speaking and our newly-honed ocarina skills, we also presented our interpretation of The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. Her children, amongst whom were Jumping Joe, Creeping Christopher and Undulating Umar, kept her incredibly busy each day, before (thankfully) falling exhausted into bed.

We also shared aloud one or two of the poems we had written (and which appear in written form elsewhere in this Blog) and our artwork. To make the celebration extra-special, we got to wear the patterned party hats we decorated.

The amazing all-singing, all-dancing domino pattern-making machine.....

As a special treat, at the end of our unit on patterns, Mira brought in her amazing…..

all-singing, all-dancing, domino pattern-making machine

for us to use.

There are lots of coloured plastic dominoes to choose from. What you have to do is choose the ones you need for your pattern and then place them carefully in the machine.

Next, turn the machine on; then stand back and watch, as the machine spits out your dominoes in a stand-up row.

Then comes the best bit; you get to knock the dominoes down, like a row of soldiers.

06 December 2007

We started with a green cube and then built a square of orange cubes around it. Then we made another square of green cubes and so on...


maths investigation



We decided to count the number of cubes in each square.
The first square of orange was made using 8 cubes.
The next square of green had 16 cubes.
We tried to guess how many cubes the next square would need. Here are some of the numbers we thought: 14, 20, 90, 26, 27, 19, 18, 30...
So we counted very carefully; we found out that...
The next orange square had 24 cubes.

We wondered if we might be able to find a pattern...

We put 8 in our heads and counted until we got to 16; we found that the difference was 8
We put 16 in our heads and counted until we got to 24; we found that the difference was 8 (again!)
The next green square had 32 cubes
We put 24 in our heads and counted until we got to 32; we found that the difference was 8 (again!)
The next orange square had 40 cubes
We put 32 in our heads and counted until we got to 40; we found that the difference was 8 (again!)
The last green square had 48 cubes
We put 40 in our heads and counted until we got to 48; we found that the difference was 8 (again!)

How many orange cubes do you think will we need to make the next square? How could you find out? Does your answer follow the pattern we found?

What are some things you could say about this pattern?

What a Terrible Noise!

As part of our Unit of Inquiry, ‘Pattern, Rhyme and Rhythm’, we shared aloud the poem ‘What a Racket’ by Trevor Harvey. Then we remodelled it using words that we particularly enjoyed the sound of.

What a Terrible Noise!
By Class 2i


Once upon a time
We lived in town...
AND...
The bulldozers crashed

The trucks beeped

The dogs woofed

The motor-cycles zoomed
The cats miaowed

The doors slammed

The children screamed
The cars vroomed
The wind howled

And the drums rumbled.

“The trouble with living in town,” said Mum, “is that it’s SO noisy.” So we moved to the country...
AND...
The sheep went baa

The birds squeaked
The babies cried
The dogs barked
The trees shook

The cars vroomed
The thunder crashed
The tractors ploughed

The fire crackled
The horses neighed

The ducks quacked

The shoes tapped
The motors rumbled

The water splashed
The leaves cracked

The rain came down

and the roof leaked.

“Lovely,” said Mum. “There’s nothing better than country sounds!”